Winter tightens its grip yet again with a storm front pounding Poland today, with heavy snow and strong wind reaching 80 km per hour.

Weathermen named the storm “Miriam”, but web social networks were quick to dub her “a bad, bad woman”.

Northern and western Poland was the first to take a hit with more snow dumped over the already thick layer lying everywhere.

In the early afternoon the snowstorm moved over central Poland.

“It’s a disaster,” desperate drivers complained as they struggled through slush and low visibility. Snow drifts have blocked many local and regional roads, despite the efforts of thousands of snow ploughs working to keep them passable.

Road blocks are caused also by trucks and other vehicles unable to drive up hills in those adverse conditions.

A number of weather-related road accidents have been reported by the police. (kk)